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ICHOLAS BlDDLE'S 

Journey To 
Greece In 1806 



"H 



BY PROF. WILLIAM NICKERSON BATES 




(READ TO THE NUMISMATIC AND ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY OF 
PHILADELPHIA. DECEMBER 17. 1917) 



UF7ZI 

NICHOLAS BIDDLE'S JOURNEY TO GREECE IN 1806. 

Prof. William Nickerson Bates. 

(Read at the Meeting of the Society, December 17, 1917.) 

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century Greece was al- 
most a terra incognita to the western world. It is true that that 
pioneer in the fields of Greek and Latin inscriptions, the merchant 
Cyriac of Ancona, visited Greece as early as the year 1436 and again 
in 1447, but the Turkish conquest of the next decade (Athens was 
captured in 1456) effectively put a stop to further travel for many 
years to come. In 1621 the French ambassador to the Porte, 
named Deshayes, on his way to Constantinople passed through 
Athens and afterwards published a few notes on his visit. I need 
not comment on them further than to say that he believed the 
Parthenon to be the temple of the "Unknown God." Another 
French ambassador, the Marquis de Nointel, visited Athens in 
1674, and unknown artists in his employ (one of whom was sup- 
posed to be Jacques Carrey) made the famous drawings of the 
Parthenon sculptures which are so important for modern study. 
The first visit by men at all qualified to report upon the remains of 
antiquity which they saw was that of Dr. Jacob Spon and Sir 
George Wheler in 1676. Both men published books on their 
return to western Europe describing the buildings which they had 
seen and adding a few drawings. They were the last travellers to 
see the Parthenon before it was blown up. It was three-quarters 
of a century before Athens was again visited by scholars from 
the west. In 1751 Stuart and Revet t went to Athens and made 
careful drawings of its buildings which they published under the 
title of the Antiquities oj Athens. In 1765 Chandler made his 
visit to Greece ; then, ten years later, Choiseul-Gouffier made his 
"picturesque journey" through the Greek islands;* and finally 
at the beginning of the nineteenth century in quick succession 
came the visits of Dodwell in 1801, Clarke in the same year, and 
Leake for the* first time in 1805. f It will be remembered that 

*The first volume of his great book appeared in 1782. 
f Their books were published later; Clarke's in 1814, Dodwell's in 
1819, and Leake's in 1821. 

(167) 



168 

in 1801 Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Sublime Porte, 
removed the Parthenon marbles and sent them to England. 
About this time or, to be exact, in 1806, a young Philadelphian 
made a tour through Greece. He was the first American to travel 
in that country, although American sailing ships engaged in 
trade with the Levant sometimes put into Greek harbors and the 
crews no doubt went ashore; and it is possible, too, that American 
naval officers may have landed on Greek soil, but they knew little 
or nothing about ancient Greece. This young American was 
Nicholas Biddle, and in what follows I shall present an account of 
his experiences as related in his journal. This journal, I may 
add, has not been published. 

Nicholas Biddle was born in Philadelphia in 1786. He was 
apparently very precocious for he entered the University of 
Pennsylvania with the class of 1799. He was, however, taken 
out of college because of his extreme youth and later entered 
Princeton from which he graduated in 1801. In 1804 he went 
to France as secretary of the American legation, and was abroad 
for three years. On his return from Greece he became secretary 
of the legation in London. I need not speak of his later life. 
He became a prominent banker and died in 1844. 

As a youth Biddle had evidently been much interested in his 
Greek studies and they had aroused in him a desire to see some- 
thing of the land itself. He begins his journal with these words : 
"I had long felt an ardent desire to visit Greece. The fate of a 
nation whose history was the first brilliant object that met my 
infancy, and the first foundation of my early studies, was so 
interesting that I had resolved to avail myself of any opportunity 
of witnessing it. The soil of Greece is sacred to genius and to 
letters. The race of beings whose achievements warm our youth- 
ful fancy has long disappeared. But the sod under which they 
repose, the air which listened to their poetry and their eloquence, 
the hills which saw their valor are still the same." The oppor- 
tunity came in the spring of 1806. Biddle had been travelling in 
Italy, and he makes this entry in his journal: "I had just seen 
Italy. No man can be indifferent to the sight of those objects 
which have commanded the admiration of the world, and surely 
Italy combines almost every possible inducement that can interest. 
Yet Italy has been so often seen that the sight becomes less inter- 
esting from its frequency. A traveller looks on nothing which 
has not already been looked at by a hundred thousand before 



Gift 

Author 
DEC 1 I9ib 



169 

him, which has not been measured and criticized by men whose 
only pursuit in life was to illustrate them. At the sight of these 
things do you wish to inquire, to look for yourself? You labor 
put down your measures and your heights and your criticisms 
and then find that all you have said has been anticipated by some 
cicerone, some venerable antiquary who has grown up on the 
spot and occupied himself with these things from the cradle. The 
holy waters of antiquity are indeed refreshing, but all that we can 
now taste has been so sifted and so often tasted that the palate 
is discontented. The walks of curiosity are so crowded that one 
is elbowed out of his road by the herd of brother pilgrims all 
hastening to drink at the same fountain"." You see that people 
with archaeological inclinations did not have the free field in those 
days that we sometimes imagine. Biddle had evidently seen 
family parties travelling about Italy and he thinks that it may 
occasion surprise that he should think of going to Greece alone. 
He writes : ' ' With females you can never see the whole of anything. 
The courtesies of society distract attention, and though many 
objects are seen more agreeably when seen with females yet all 
are seen less profoundly and perhaps less usefully." 

On the twenty-eighth of March he set sail from Naples on the 
Greek brig Themistocles for Zante by way of Sicily. There were 
several passengers aboard most of them bound for Sicily, including 
a Major Barnes, of Virginia, who was going out to assume his 
duties as United States consul at Messina and an Englishman 
named Semple. But it was not an easy thing to get to Greece in 
those days. It came on to blow during the night and the next 
morning they found themselves riding at anchor under the lea 
of the castle at Baiae. Here they had to stay for three days; and 
Biddle spent his time partly on shore, where he met an American 
sailor who had been shipwrecked near Leghorn, and partly in 
taking lessons in modern Greek from a Greek priest whom he 
found among the passengers. He was evidently impressed by 
the modem pronunciation for he comments on the "shocking 
pronunciation of it by our modern schoolmasters." But Biddle 
did not get on very well with the priest, for he made the fatal 
mistake of discussing religious matters with him. In fact he 
expressed incredulity when the priest declared that he had "a 
piece of the true cross which would resist flame and secure him 
against a thousand bullets," and that "a certain Patriarch of 
Constantinople lighted with a touch of his beard a whole room 



170 

full of lamps wliich Satan had extinguished." They finally 
reached Messina where he was delayed by holy week and by what 
he calls the "Greek fast days," but the Greek captain finally 
sailed when Biddle was on shore, and he was left behind cursing 
Greek duplicity. What probably happened was that the priest 
told the captain that if he sailed with such an infidel on board 
they would all find themselves at the bottom of the sea. 

Biddle found Messina a "dismal" place. Not long before 
there had been an earthquake, the evidences of which were still 
numerous. The streets were full of beggars who surpassed in 
wretchedness even those of Naples. "I had never had an idea 
of human misery until I saw Messina. The last stage of human 
wretchedness, the most degraded period of humanity is to be 
found here. Man is really very little superior to a brute. * * * 
The sad and piercing explanation, ' Mori di fame,' assails a stranger 
at every avenue, whilst he in vain averts his eye from some miser- 
able being, tottering under infirmity, covered with rags, eaten 
up by vermin and almost expiring with disease." He attributes 
the misery at Messina to the government which spends its money 
on "pretty fireworks to amuse Majesty, and stupendous skyrockets 
to demonstrate Sicilian intrepidity with gunpowder." 

There were three American consuls in Sicily at this time, one 
at Palermo, one at Syracuse, and the third, his friend Barnes, at 
Messina. He went with Barnes to a convent to call upon the 
sister of the Marquis of Palermo, and writes that he found her 
"a very handsome, well-behaved, sensible girl" who "candidly 
confessed that she sighed after her freedom, but until somebody 
came to marry and relieve her she was obliged to be contented." 
He adds that as he "could not rescue her in that way he could only 
pity her." 

While at Messina he saw Ferdinand, King of Naples. He 
tells how he waited from twelve to five o'clock for the king to 
pass. "My uncourtly appetite, " he writes, "gave me many hints 
against royalty, but I bore them patiently until the arrival of his 
Majesty. I at last saw him, not like the angel of the Revelations, 
a man upon a white horse, but a white man upon a bay horse. 
At the head of a few shabby troops, not quite rabble nor yet 
soldiers, he forced his way with difficulty through the crowd who 
fawned around him with the most servile humility. He is an old 
man whom physiognomy certainly never destined for the throne. 
A large nose, in some sort the characteristic feature of his family, 



171 

is his most striking trait. His face is vacant, but foolish and good, 
and no man who sees it doubts of the propriety of his title, King of 
the Lazzaroni." 

Being unable to find a boat to take him to Greece he decided 
to go to Malta, hoping to get passage from there. The small 
boat in which he embarked followed the east coast of Sicily until 
the little town of Terra Nobile was reached. Here they spent 
three days waiting for a favorable wind. One night he spent in 
town on what he calls a "good bed, but so pre-occupied that a 
host of gentry alarmed at our intrusion treated us as invaders." 

At Malta he found an American squadron which was cruising 
in the Mediterranean ; and he also met there- a merchant named 
Noble who had been a friend of Nelson and had once spent seven 
weeks with him aboard his ship. He had a number of letters from 
Lord Nelson, some written partly by himself and partly by Lady 
Hamilton. One letter he gave to Biddle. It would be interesting 
to know whether it is still in existence. Noble told him that at 
Palermo Lord Nelson often used to make him disguise his hand- 
writing, sometimes make him disguise himself like a servant, and 
send or carry money hidden in a basket to persons in distress. 
Sometimes even people who dined at his own table used to be 
supplied in that way, for Nelson knew they must be in want, but 
would not ask. Nobody but Noble used to know of these gifts. 
This is a rather interesting side light on Nelson. Noble also told 
him that Nelson detested cards, but that on one occasion when the 
Royal Family of Naples came aboard his ship they played faro 
for stakes of half a dollar, and Nelson, or rather Lady Hamilton 
for him, lost a large amount of money. 

He was delayed at Malta for some time but at length got 
passage for Zante. It is interesting to note that the day before he 
sailed he spent in the library reading Spon and Wheler. On the 
way over he passed his time studying modern Greek, and in this 
connection he records an interesting incident showing how any 
thoughts of liberty on the part of the Greeks were quickly sup- r\ . 
pressed by the Turks. A man named Rjtga, a native of Thessaly, A. / L 
had been an author and editor in Vienna, but had been obliged to 
leave because of his French sympathies. While in Turkish terri- 
tory he wrote a poem reminding the Greeks of their former glory 
and urging them to revolt and become independent. He paid 
for this with his life. 

It took Biddle from Friday to Tuesday to go from Malta to 



#4 



172 

Zante. He had letters to one of the natives who found quarters for 
him at the house of an Englishman named Carlo, who had been 
a servant of John Adams in London and in Spain. He was 
especially pleased with the appearance of the island. He climbed 
the hill back of the town where he got a view of the plain " spotted 
with villages and covered with the most luxuriant vegetation 
which," he says, " is one of the sweetest scenes I have ever beheld." 
The people were engaged in exporting the Zante currant, which he 
pronounced "exquisite," and in the manufacture of cotton trousers 
which were sent to the Barbary States. He found them indus- 
trious and honest as well as prosperous, and that all the beggars 
were foreigners. At this time Zante belonged to a republic of seven 
islands established in 1800. The dress of the people was much 
like that of Italy. He says, "The women live very retired. The 
people do not much like to let you go into their families. A man 
may show you a great many civilities abroad, but he does not 
take you home to let you see his family." Of the women he says, 
"When they go out it is always with a black mask, which, however, 
they take off occasionally. I have seen some, but they were not 
handsome. They generally sit at the window whence through a 
blind, or wicket, they see unobserved what passes." * * * 
"The British consul says they paint white and red. Is it possible 
that this habit supposed to be the offspring of the last stage of 
corruption can have found its way here?" He then describes 
two grave stelae from Sparta which Lord Aberdeen was about to 
ship to London upon which appeared rouge pots among other toilet 
articles. 

At the little village of Volines he found an interesting survival 
from antiquity. "The people," he says, "have the custom of 
putting a piece of money into the mouth of a dead man at his 
funeral. Being peculiar to that spot, or rather to some particular 
families there, as it comes from the old custom of providing oneself 
with money enough to pay Charon's ferriage, and as the only 
account the people can give is that it is the traditional custom, it 
is possible that some straggling settlement formerly fixed itself 
there, unknown to history. But it is singular and shows the 
tenacity of usages. ' ' Another custom that he mentions is that land 
is sold by the bushel, that is as much ground as a bushel ought to 
sow. Biddle was alive to the possibility of trade between Zante 
and the United States and thought that a consul should be ap- 
pointed there. 



173 

At Zante he took boat for the nearest point in the Peloponne- 
sus, a distance of eighteen miles. It took him eight hours to make 
the crossing. On May 11 he writes, "I have at last touched the 
holy soil of Greece. * * * As I approached the shore I was 
eager to catch the manner in which Greece would first present 
itself. A long chain of irregular country, broken by bays and 
diversified by mountains whose tops are covered with snow, seen 
indistinctly from Zante, gradually became more clearly discern- 
able. A high, hilly shore for the most part covered with shrubs, 
with occasional spots of cultivation, enlivened by Castel Tornese 
(a fortress on a commanding eminence) were the first objects 
which met the eye. The aspect was, however-, barren and un- 
compromising. We passed the little island of Caucalida (on which 
there is a single house) and arrived in the bay near which was 
Chiarenza, the place of our destination. Presuming that this was 
a town I was surprised on a nearer approach to find that a custom- 
house and two huts were all that represented the ancient city of 
Cyllene. As we got from the boat about a dozen Greeks and 
Turks sitting crosslegged on the beach rose to receive us. For 
the first time I trod the ground of Greece. The letter I had 
brought for the custom-house officer I found to be useless, as he 
had just been superseded; however* as the person with whom I 
came was acquainted with his successor I was under no embarrass- 
ment. We walked about forty yards to the custom-house, a 
small building of which the upper story alone is inhabited, all 
the lower part being only a wall. We went up a pair of stairs on 
the outside, and passing over a drawbridge, got into the little 
castle. It did, indeed, resemble one when upon going into the 
room we found a Turk in one corner upon a carpet and smoking a 
pipe. His figure was not the most prepossessing. He was 
dressed in the style of his country with a turban, a jacket, and a 
sort of loose trousers, with a pair of red slippers. His long red 
mustachoes vied in fierceness with his pistols and dagger which 
he carried in his girdle. He was, however, in spite of his dress a 
very good-looking and very excellent man. He received us with 
great kindness. There being no chairs he brought us a trunk as 
a substitute for one; but wishing to please him I preferred his 
own style, and for the first time saw how superfluous an article a 
chair is. After some preliminary talk carried on by means of 
my servant, he asked if I would eat, and immediately a sheep was 
sent for and killed for supper. Whilst it was preparing I went out 



174 

to see the country. I walked about a quarter of a mile to a little 
rising ground which offered the remains of a Venetian fortress. 
It was a beautiful situation. The sun was just going down. 
Around me was a melancholy picture of desolation. Over the 
ruins of a fortress, where vegetation was contending against the 
fragments, a group of cows and sheep were feeding. The shepherd, 
leaning upon his staff, stood wondering at the curiosity of this 
stranger. At a little distance the sea was calm, and the numerous 
islands which covered its surface gave it a beautiful variety. 
The eye rested upon Ithaca, that little spot which is immortalized 
by the song of the first of poets, and by the residence of the man 
who, like myself, was a wanderer. I now felt that I was in Greece. 
I felt that I was alone in a foreign country, distant from all that 
was dear to me, surrounded by barbarians who yet occupied a 
soil interesting from its former virtues and its present ruin," 
and more to the same effect. He returned to the house and dined 
on the sheep, which was served on a table about six inches high. 

Biddle was much impressed by the piety of the Turk. He 
describes how just before dark the man arose, went to the window 
and "spreading on the floor his mantle stood upon it and began 
his prayer. He sighed and seemed moved, went upon his knees, 
then kissed the floor, rose and repeated the ceremony several times, 
then returned and resumed the conversation." When it grew 
late the American threw himself down on a small bed beside the 
Turk's and so spent the night. 

The next day he got a horse and set out along the shore for 
Patras. He found this part of Elis "beautifully cultivated, with 
rich fields of grain without any enclosure," though some parts 
lay waste for lack of inhabitants. He mentions stopping at the 
town of Kena for breakfast and picking up a book in one of the 
houses. It was a copy of Aesop's Fables, Musaeus, etc. This 
leads him to moralize, "The learned pedantry of our Hellenists 
would have been disconcerted at finding its boasted treasures thus 
degraded, and to find a ragged boy a better commentator than 
the disciplined pedagogues of Oxford." 

He wanted to stop at the ruins of the city of Elis, two hours 
ride away, but pressed on to Patras. "We passed through several 
villages, or rather hamlets, all pretty and apparently comfortable. 
Chaminazza was the largest of them. There was here a wedding 
and we were regaled with the music and the sight of the bride. In 
all these places I was particularly pleased with the sight of the 



175 

peasantry, a stout, hearty race whose dress, which approaches 
very near the antique, renders them still more interesting. They 
recalled, because they resembled, the ancient heroes of the country. 
They are not, however, numerous, as their country is thinly 
inhabited. I ought not to omit that for the first time I heard 
from a shepherd's boy the sound of a flageolet, that rural music 
so sweet, so famous, yet so little heard. I had never heard a 
note from a Swiss peasant whilst watching his fold. Instead of 
music they love only tobacco, and from their pipes nothing issues 
but smoke." 

Patras he found, ''entirely uninteresting, there being no 
antiquity of any sort." It was, however, a ,busy commercial 
town of two thousand inhabitants. But he does say that some 
"iron hooks for fastening ships" had recently been found in an 
old wall, which he thinks afford proof that the sea once ran further 
inland. He got post-horses and set out eastward along the 
shore of the Gulf of Corinth. He remarks incidentally that the 
post was at this time regularly established through Greece. Two 
hours from Vostizza he stopped for food at a little khan where he 
was evidently given yaourti, for he says that "the most common 
food of the people is sour milk, or the Turkish dish something like 
sour crout, except that there is nothing but milk and lemon in it." 
At Vostizza, the ancient Aegium, he had a letter to the governor, 
of whom he says, "Not speaking Greek, his civilities consisted in 
furnishing me with a bed and something to eat. He felt his 
embarrassment and escaped from it in a way not very favorable to 
Greek good manners. After supper he went to bed without 
saying a word and in the morning when I started he had got out 
and I did not see him. T felt no regret, for although a governor, 
he was something of a beast, and had never been to Athens." 
He copied here an inscription ETPTAX1N ANE0HKEN, and 
then set sail across the gulf to visit Delphi. He found in the gulf 
waves like the sea. The boat was loaded with horses, and one 
thing or another, for different ports, so that it was dark when they 
reached the Gulf of Salona. Here he says, "For the first time 
I slept upon sand over which a sheet was thrown." The next 
morning after rowing for several hours they reached the Skala of 
Chryso, whence he went to Chryso, and so on to Delphi. 

At Delphi he writes, "Why have I not the pencil of an artist 
to transmit to you the scene before me ? I am sitting amongst the 
ruins of one of the proudest cities of Greece. How sad and solitary 



176 

a picture! This spot, once the centre of Grecian art and religion, 
where the genius and the superstition of the first of nations loved 
to display its power and its extravagance, now oppressed by a 
foreign people and its altars changed for a new religion, its monu- 
ments dispersed and ruined by barbarians, has now just enough 
remains to indicate its position and proclaim its misfortunes. 
Yet the sense of its ruin mingles with the august and venerable 
remembrance of its renown and its greatness. These ruins are 
indeed complete and desolating to the mind. This awful abode of 
the god, this temple which contained his image and presented to 
the admiring stranger the votive treasures of superstition, and the 
brilliant productions of the Grecian artist, now lies defaced and 
mutilated," etc. 

He put up at the house of the priest. ''The high priest of 
Delphos," he says, "is superseded by the humble poverty of a 
Greek curate whose beard is, perhaps, his nearest point of analogy 
to his predecessor, and his poverty and honesty the widest dis- 
tinction between them." The priest went with him to the ruins. 
They first went to a fountain which, he said, seemed to be antique, 
and the priest said that it was the Castalian; but he soon saw 
another spring which he thought to be the real Castalian spring. 
"This fountain," I quote again, "issues from two sources at the 
foot of a large cleft which separates the two parts of Parnassus. 
The one is large, about eight or ten feet wide and twenty long. 
There are steps down to it for the persons to sit upon who wished 
to have cures performed by it (says the parson), and a small 
room fabricated out of the rock which surrounds the fountain. 
The steps and the rock are antique. The other source is a little 
higher up and smaller, but they soon join. The water is very 
pure and very good. The whole fountain was covered, or rather 
the stream, by Delphic women washing dirty linen, who did not 
understand perfectly the object of my curiosity." He at first 
took the Phaedriades cliffs for the peaks of Parnassus; but he 
evidently discovered his error when he got further away from the 
mountain and could see its real summit. "Near the Castalian 
fountain, and making part of the room and steps around, are 
other large ruins which may probably have formed the temple of 
Apollo. Against the rock is a recess or niche, which might have 
served for a statue or the oracle itself. From this niche to the room 
over the fountain (a distance of thirty or forty feet) is a subterra- 
neous passage, perceived through the stones under the room. 



177 

This most probably served for the passage of the priests in order to 
assist the oracle. Indeed all the mountain is filled with these 
invisible roads as may be perceived by the echoes of the niches, 
as well as by actual observation, they having discovered one 
which they were afraid to pursue. Immediately under Parnassus 
is a bowling-green with a bench round it in stone serving (says the 
parson) for music and amusements. The large ruins near it show 
that it belonged to some immense building. Lower down the 
mountain are other large masses of ruins some of which retain the 
form of houses and evince their ancient majesty. In the rocks 
are a great many holes worked out and destined either for baths or 
beds. There is also a large plain about half down the mountain 
which may have been the gymnasium. None of the ruins do more 
than stimulate, without satisfying, curiosity. Temples to which 
no name can be assigned, apertures in the rocks, are all that remain. 
Yet I have seen few ruins so noble." * * * "The most 
inhabited part was under the Castalian fountain." * * * "The 
inscriptions are unsatisfactory. I have just been to see one which 
is in a cellar; and after having annoyed some hens who were 
roosting, we distinguished by the aid of a candle a great deal of 
writing on the stones of the wall. I perceived it would have 
required a year of much more light, both physical and moral, than 
I had to examine them, and I therefore contented myself without 
looking at a number more in another house. There was one, 
however, in a field which the priest declared no one had yet been 
able to explain. This piqued my learning, and I therefore copied 
it, but without knowing if I can make sense of it." This in- 
scription was afterwards seen and copied by other travellers and is 
now to be found in the Corpus of Greek Inscriptions. It is 
interesting to note that Biddle got it almost all right. He also 
saw inscriptions at Chryso (Crissa), but found them almost 
impossible to decipher. He reports the ruins of several temples 
near Chryso, which seem no longer to exist. He copied the 
word <I>AABI02 from a round stone there. 

From Chryso he went to Livadia, finding what he regarded 
as the ancient road well preserved in places. He says it is "built 
of large, thick stones not so broad nor so smooth as the Roman." 
It is doubtful whether this really was ancient Greek paving. He 
found the road "disagreeable in the beginning, and the country 
barren. The only incident occurring was our having the company 
of a cutthroat looking Turk, whose society gave me no satis- 



178: 

faction." * * * ** Having reached the town I rode to the 
house of the Logothete, to whom the Bishop of Chryso had 
addressed me although I had no letter for him." The Logothete 
was away when Biddle arrived, but when he came back he made 
him welcome and entertained him. "The next morning I learned 
much of Grecian politeness and character. The spirit of the 
Greeks is bowed but not broken. Though oppressed cruelly by 
their masters they remember that they were men. The people 
are disarmed; a Turk is a word of terror, and refinement of 
tyranny seems to have been carried on every subject that can 
excite feelings of interest or humanity. The people, therefore, 
hate their masters with the most rooted enmity, and wound up 
as their feelings are, the slightest spark of either foreign assistance 
or a favorable moment is all that is wanted to inflame the whole 
nation into rebellion. The despotism of Turkey is proverbial, but 
I this day saw an example of it which enables me to appreciate 
the merit of the saying. A new governor of Negropont and 
Livadia has just been appointed. He was once at Cairo where, 
though he became acquainted with and fond of Englishmen, he 
did not imbibe' any of the liberal spirit of their country. After 
passing through Smyrna, where he cut off a number of heads on 
account of some delay in the contribution, he passed to the 
Dardanelles, then down along Turkey carrying fire and desolation 
with him. Superseding all the governors through whose districts 
he passed (unless they be like himself Bashaws with three tails) 
with a Complete power over the life and property of any individual, 
and a power to levy unlimited tribute on the towns which are in 
the route to his government, he is an object of dismay to his 
people. He was this day to enter into Livadia. The ceremony 
promised to be curious and I went out to see it. I soon learned a 
lesson of Turkish government. I had scarcely walked about 
fifty yards from the house in company with the chancellor and 
physician, when a Turkish dragoon rode up after us, and showing 
a billet of lodging, demanded of the chancellor where the house 
was. The chancellor said he did not know the house. The 
Turk abusing him in the grossest way, ordered him to take him 
immediately to the house. The chancellor seemed indignant 
and inclined to resist. The blush on his cheek was a tribute to 
his manhood which like his country's freedom passed in a moment. 
The Turk ran his horse up against him and drawing his sword 
drove him before him like a dog. Luckily at some distance the 



179 

chancellor found a man who knew the house and undertook to 
conduct the Turk, who then let the poor wretch go. Such was 
the treatment which a common soldier dared to give to an old- 
man, a respectable man, and an officer." Biddle then goes on to - 
express his indignation that the populace did not rise and put an 
end to the Turk. Three or four hours later the Pasha arrived. 
"He came at last. Preceded and followed by a herd of savage 
cavalry and infantry, a band of music consisting of a quantity of 
kettledrums and a flute or two, he received the elders of the 
town, who kissed his hand, and he then went to his lodgings. He 
had displayed all his troops, and his most brilliant ornament 
was a number of horses without riders and with large gilt shields 
on each side of them. Having reached the city and assembled 
the chief governors he first made them pay a contribution of 
14,000 piasters. It was in vain that the elders declared the 
poverty of their city, and that no former Pasha had demanded 
more than four or five thousand. He told them that he must have 
it ; that if they did not give it he would cut off their heads and burn: 
the city. They were obliged to produce the money, which, added' 
to the expenses of three days' lodgings for the troops, cost the town 
25,000 piasters (somewhere about $7000)." 

Biddle examined the oracle of Trophonius which he found in 
the midst of the town. ' ' The old town, " he says, ' ' being destroyed, 
the new one is built on each side of the cave which is now in the* 
middle of the city." He also says that Lord Elgin did some 
digging there and found a flight of steps leading down to the' 
fountain. While Biddle was at Livadia two Englishmen arrived- 
from Constantinople, and continued on to Delphi. 

From Livadia, when he finally succeeded in getting a horse, 
for the Pasha had carried off all the good ones, he visited Ther- 
mopylae. He spent the night at a wretched khan at Molo and 
then returned to Livadia by way of Chaeronea, then a village of 
about thirty houses. He comments on the theatre. 

He next went to Thebes, stopping to examine the ruins of 
Leuctra and of Plataea. At the latter site the town walls were the 
most important remains as they are to-day. At Thebes he found 
the Pasha, who had levied a tribute of 12,000 piasters, which, he 
says, was more oppressive than the sum demanded of Livadia, as 
Thebes had a population of 1500 or 2000 only. He saw at Thebes 
several temples in ruins or converted into churches. "One only 
remained in preservation near the Gate of Plataea. One or two 



180 



other gates, particularly the Cadmean, or that which led to the 
Cadmea or citadel, we could also distinguish. The fountain 
which is the farthest of all from the citadel and was called Isth- 
menian, is a beautiful source of water with ruins of buildings 
around, serving to show that there must have been a temple 
there." The site of Thebes he found delightful. In fact he 
says "All Boeotia is a charming country. I have never seen 
anywhere the ground so beautifully diversified by hill and vale: 
and the soil is at the same time very good." 

From Thebes he went to Athens, passing by the way some 
remains which he took for Phyle. At Athens he was much im- 
pressed by the Theseum and the temple of Zeus ; but he laments the 
degeneracy of the people under their petty Turkish tyrant. 

Of the Acropolis he says, "The citadel is on a fine eminence 
overlooking the whole. It is here that we see the celebrated temple 
of Minerva of which the remains attest the ancient magnificence. 
But as all the bas-reliefs are taken away, and the statues also, 
by Lord Elgin, we can see nothing but the columns, which are 
of amazing grandeur, and the fronton. It must have been a 
wonderful building, when we consider the entrance or propylaeum, 
which is now unfortunately incrusted in a building. Indeed so 
complicated are the little houses over the ruins that you see but 
little of the majesty of the temple, not being able to see it but 
close. What is still more unfortunate is that the Turks have a 
mosque in the middle which spoils very much the effect. The best 
points of view are at a distance, where the temple appears to great 
advantage. The columns are of six or eight feet diameter and of a 
noble Doric. In the neighborhood is the temple of Neptune 
Erechtheus and Minerva Polias, a double temple built to these two 
protectors of Athens. In a sort of portico belonging to the temple 
and adorned with some fine female statues was placed the famous 
olive tree which Minerva made to spring out of the ground, and 
on Neptune's side the well. The figures are very much injured, 
and two of them have been taken away, one by Lord Elgin. * On 
the citadel is the house where the governor lives. It is customary 
for strangers to visit him and make him a small present of some 
piasters." 

Of the Theseum he says, "The temple of Theseus on a rising 
near the Pnyx is the most perfect building which is to be seen at 

* This is now in the British Museum. The other statue is now in its 
place in the temple. 



1S1 

Athens. Being converted into a church, the ends of the interior 
are curved, the roof is vaulted and the shape of the inside quite 
altered, but the exterior is quite preserved. It is of a beautiful 
Doric simplicity, the reliefs, which seem to be alto-reliefs, are 
very fine. The columns have many of them been affected by an 
earthquake which has made the pieces project one over the other. 
The same is the case with the temple of Minerva. Even the 
earthquake, however, spared these buildings. It forms a very 
striking object viewed from any point of the city." 

The Odeum of Herodes Atticus he takes for the theatre of 
Dionysus, but is surprised at its small size which he thinks inade- 
quate for so large a city. The Pnyx. the .monument of Philo- 
pappus, the temple of Olympian Zeus, the Areopagus, the "caves 
of Pan," and the stadium are briefly described. Of the stadium 
which he calls "a fine, large building," he says, "The form only is 
seen. None of the seats can be found. Yet it seems so perfect 
in form that it waits for people and appears to ask where are the 
men of Athens ? There is a large cavern or covered way through 
which the beasts were brought in, or the magistrates came, prob- 
ably the former." This is known to have been destroyed a few 
years later. On one of the hills above the stadium he saw ruins 
of two buildings, one of which he calls a temple of Ares; and 
further on what he describes as the "foundations of Callirrhoe." 

He is pleased with the politeness of the Athenians. He 
contrasts them with the Spartans, who, he says, are rude and 
uncivil. Albanian villages he found located all over the country, 
where the people spoke no Greek. The Albanian people he likens 
to American Indians. He says, "The people of Athens are much 
more civilized than twenty years ago ; then the women ran away 
at the sight of a Frank." * * * "The people of the Morea 
are more depressed than the Athenians. They have the appear- 
ance of being vexed and harassed. At Athens you can live well; 
but at the south and in the islands you cannot get any meat. 
Provisions are in no part of Turkey so cheap as in Athens." He 
thinks this fortunate condition is due to the fact that a firman 
protected it from the visits of the pashas, and because it was 
governed directly from Constantinople as a fief of the Sultan. 

He went down to the Piraeus and makes some interesting 
observations. "All along we saw the remains of the famous wall 
planned by Themistocles and erected by Pericles. It seemed to 
to have been of the breadth of one of our roads and built of large 



182 

stones." * * * "All around Phalerum and Munychia is a 
wall made by Themistocles." * * * "All over the promon- 
tory are remains of large ruins, warehouses, etc. The wall around 
the port is very fine, that is, the foundations of it." 

In company with an Englishman named Williams he sailed 
over to Aegina to see the temple. They arrived at two o'clock in 
the morning, and after a walk of two hours reached a town which 
he describes as built in:conical form on a hill. Here they searched 
in vain for milk or water. At length they reached the temple and 
admired its situation. "This is perhaps the most ancient building 
in this part of the world," he writes. "For want of a better name 
its foundation is ascribed to Aeacus. It is called the temple of 
Jupiter Panhellenicus. Almost all of the columns of the building, 
r of about twenty feet high, large and of the Doric order show that 
it must have been a very handsome temple. It is of stone, the 
pieces unusually large, and of great antiquity." His companion 
Williams made a sketch of it: On their return they looked over 
the site of the battle of Salamis, and then walked back to Athens 
in the dark. 

At another time he visited Cephisia which he observes is in 
no way remarkable except in being the birthplace of Menander, 
iDut "the comic poet would find more subject for sorrow than for 
mirth in the present state of the town." From there he went on 
fto Marathon, stopping to examine two caves in the side of a hill. 
He says that they are wholly unworthy of notice, but that Wheler 
had been unable to find them. The mound he describes as about 
;twenty-five feet high and thirty feet in diameter. He says, "It 
was conical, but they have dug on two of its sides for antiques." 
And he adds below, "Fauvel did it. He found nothing; thinks it 
a, Persian tomb." From Marathon they rode south "and," to 
use his own words, "soon came to a little island in the midst of 
a marsh. The marsh was formerly the lake, and on the island 
are ruins which point it out as the spot where was the tomb of the 
Athenians. There remain some pieces of marble, one or two 
prostrate columns, and four or five pedestals. In digging here 
Mr. Fauvel, the French consul, found a bust of Marcus Aurelius 
and a number of Roman coins, that is, Romanized Greek coins." 
From here they rode to Cochla and then on to the monastery of 
Pentele where they spent the night. He remarks that in coming 
from Athens they passed a piece of the ancient road on a hill. 
They visited the marble quarries of Pentelicus which he describes 
in some detail. 



183 

From the monastery they rode to Sunium, stopping at Vraona 
and spending a night at Ceratia. He says of Sunium, "The port is 
small, and to the westward around it are the remains of docks and 
things of that sort. On the hill are the ruins of the wall, and still 
further up those of the fortress of which there is a large part of 
one side still a little above ground. On the top is the famous 
temple of Minerva. This overlooks the fine, bold rocky shore of 
the point." He describes the temple which was in much the same 
condition as it is to-day. His return to Athens was by way of the 
west coast. 

On June fifth, he says he went with two Englishmen to look 
for "the Lyceum, the Cynosarges and spme old walls, in which 
we were about half successful," and later he mentions a walk 
with Fauvel to the Ceramicus and the Academy. This is the last 
entry in the book. He says that he has put down a description 
of this walk in his next notebook, but this cannot now be found. 
It is, however, believed to be still in existence. 

While in Athens Biddle apparently saw much of Fauvel, for 
many years the French agent there, whom he describes as "a very 
amiable, sensible man and better informed than any other of all 
that related to Greek antiquities." He also saw something of 
Lusieri, the painter, who had superintended the work of removing 
the Parthenon sculptures for Lord Elgin. 

This journal is interesting from several points of view, but 
particularly as recording the observations of the first American to 
travel in Greece. It is a tribute also to his instructors in Greek 
both in Philadelphia and at Princeton, who not only inspired in 
him a deep interest in Greece, but gave him the knowledge which 
enabled him to read the Greek authors with pleasure and even to 
copy Greek inscriptions. 



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